


Release Candidate

by lizard_socks



Series: Rootstock [8]
Category: Star Trek
Genre: All-OC Cast, Canine Aliens, Christian Character, First Contact, Gen, Not a Starfleet Ship, OC-centric, Prime Directive (Star Trek), human/alien hybrids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28052859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard_socks/pseuds/lizard_socks
Summary: The four-legged Algrady Golin, an astronaut from a pre-warp society, is excited to meet aliens for the first time. Now they just need to decide what to do with him. While he gets his leg injury treated, he spends time in the medical bay with a haggard-looking Iroshan teenager who'd just as well not talk about himself.
Series: Rootstock [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778194
Kudos: 2





	Release Candidate

The _Rootstock_ 's captain kept her eyes on the viewscreen.

"Communications: start medium-term recording of all sensors."  


"Recording started," said Leaf, the grey, furry, self-described "monster" at the comms station.  


"Shouldn't someone be monitoring this planet's level of technological development? " asked Sharona Misam. An orange Caitian, he was the ship's xenobiologist, but his Starfleet experience meant he often ended up on bridge duty. "Like, besides us? I thought we were a transport ship."  


"You'd think," said the captain. "But it doesn't look like there are any other ships in the area. At least not on Federation, Alliance, or Klingon frequencies."  


"You checked Klingon?" Ashley Dekker, a tall, lanky, dark-skinned human with long blonde hair, looked up from her station console. 

"Well, no time to call for backup now," the captain said. "The rocket's already in the air. How's that tracking going?"  


Pyrite, a holographic lifeform with an unassuming manner, tapped a few buttons on her own console. "Position and velocity's on console window fifty, schematic guess on fifty-one, life signs on fifty-two."  


Captain Sheleth, a Kasheetan who was both taller and younger than the rest of her bridge crew, reached down to her console - mounted flat on a table, as she preferred not to sit down if she could help it - and rearranged the new data that appeared.  


"One individual aboard?"  


"That's what I'm reading," Pyrite said.  


"Non-humanoid," said Misam. "Looks like a canine skeleton."  


"Someone launching an animal into space?" Ashley asked.  


"To what end?" asked Sheleth.  


"See how long it survives? I don't know. My planet did it."  


"Your planet is a strange place," Leaf remarked.  


"It could be a pilot," Misam added, "if it's an intelligent, self-aware lifeform. Most of the people we've seen in this galaxy are bipedal, but certainly not all."  


Pyrite suddenly looked back at her console. "The trajectory is getting erratic," she said.  


"Any idea why?" Sheleth asked.  


"Computer thinks it's a failure in one engine causing an uneven weight distribution. Let me project that against the actual path."  


"Keep an eye on any signs of course correction," Misam said. "If we don't see any, that'll rule out sapience."  


Sheleth sent a quick message, then turned around to face her crew. "There might be an easier way to figure that out. Ashley -- go find Rel in the transporter room. She could use some backup."  


As Ashley got up to leave, Misam approached Sheleth with trepidation. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.  


"We're not in Starfleet anymore, Misam. This isn't a Prime Directive question."  


"Does that really change anything for you?"  


Sheleth shook her head.  


"The way I see it, we have two choices: beam it aboard, or let it die. And if we're going to pick the latter, well..."  


Misam gave her an incredelous look. "You can't actually be considering killing it _later_?"  


"That's exactly the point. If we wouldn't do it later, why do it now?"  


* * *

Ashley entered the transporter room, bringing with her two phasers and two extra security guards. The guards, and the transporter operator, were all floaters - employees of General Interplanetary, the Iroshan company that owned the _Rootstock_ and a handful of other ships. Like most Iroshan starship crews, they were also all zhrs: blue bipeds with big yellow eyes and insectoid antennae. The zhrs were the planet's native species and its most dominant, but they were hardly the only ones who called Iroshar home.  


"What's the status?" Ashley asked.  


"We've got a lock on the alien," said Rel, the transporter operator. "Sheleth said it could be hostile, so I wasn't supposed to bring it aboard without some backup."  


"It's just a precaution," Ashley said as she calmly handed one of the phasers to the guard on her left; the other was already standing back with an Iroshan laser bow. "Leave the worrying to us."  


Ashley kept her eyes on the transporter pad as Rel beamed the alien creature in. He looked like... a dog. Then again, Ashley had never seen a dog wearing an astronaut's flight suit before; clearly he was an intelligent being.  


He collapsed on the transporter pad, but he appeared to be concious. The other guards hung back, but Ashley put away her phaser and walked towards him.  


"Ow," said the alien.  


Ashley knelt down. "Are you all right?" she asked.  


The alien, still laying sideways on the transporter pad, looked around the room as the other guards holstered their weapons. "I got abducted by aliens just now," he said, a bit bemused. "Otherwise I'm fine. I'm guessing my rocket's..."  


"Destroyed?"  


"Any idea where it fell?"  


"I'll make sure to ask."  


"Wow." He looked around the room. "It's an alien ship. With aliens. Just like on radiofilm. You speak my language?"  


"Oh, right." Ashley glanced back at Rel; she didn't know the transporter operator that well, but surely he'd know more about the computer than she did. "It's our computer - it translates all spoken language aboard this ship."  


"So the machine must know all your languages," said the alien. "How does it know mine?"  


"Alliance vessels have passed by this planet before picking up radio transmissions." Rel looked through a datapad in his hand. "Looks like there was enough data for Gonglasys to reverse-engineer the spoken tongue and add it to their langpack."  


"Impressive." The alien nodded. "Nice to meet you all. You can call me Algrady Golin."  


"I'm Ashley Dekker. And my coworkers here are Rel, Cor, and Riv."  


"Are you the leader?"  


"Of the ship? No, just head of security."  


Algrady smiled. "They sent you first, huh? Can't say I blame them."  


"You're an astronaut, right? Maybe a background in aerial warfare? It wouldn't surprise me if you've been in a few scrapes."  


"No doubt about that. Speaking of, I should probably ask - you're not going to eat me, are you? Although I guess there's nothing really I can do about it." Algrady looked around the room again. "Nice to know there's someone else out there, at least. I don't know if you're familiar with my world's popular culture, but we have a lot of stories about space aliens. None of them have skeletons quite like yours, though. Is it hard to walk that way?"  


"It's not too bad," Rel said. "It's nice to have a couple limbs free to do things with."  


"Kinda slows you down, though," added Ashley.  


Algrady walked tenderly towards the edge of the transporter pad. He grimaced as he tried to step off onto the floor. "I might not be doing as well as I thought," he said. "I imagine you have some type of medical facility?" _  
_

* * *

[ ](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/a26676ed-5753-4a81-8907-199bd9057960/dea4oqz-db09d782-9bd5-44f9-93db-7ff480727ebe.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYTI2Njc2ZWQtNTc1My00YTgxLTg5MDctMTk5YmQ5MDU3OTYwXC9kZWE0b3F6LWRiMDlkNzgyLTliZDUtNDRmOS05M2RiLTdmZjQ4MDcyN2ViZS5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.Q4ZiiSEWJVEMnGuQqHYEVT4CVU3irEJWdqNTgL_XBoA)

Algrady had been injured in combat before, and this wasn't the first time someone else had carried him around. He just never thought it would be by an alien four times his height whose only fur was on her head.  


"You're not of the same species as the rest, are you?" Algrady asked.  


"From what you've told me," Ashley said, "a lot of your outer space stories have ships run mostly by people like you, but with a few token aliens."  


Algrady nodded.  


"This is a ship full of token aliens," said Ashley. "The ship's owned by General Interplanetary - a starship transit company on the planet Iroshar. GI owns a bunch of ships just like this, and everyone except the senior staff moves around as needed. Most of the employees are zhrs - the native species - but they also wanted a ship on hand that they could fill with other species if they needed to. So all the permanent crew members here are from different places."  


"Why?"  


"It's complicated. Let's just say not everyone likes dealing with Iroshans all that much. In any case, I'm not the _only_ human. Dr. Morrison - she's part human too."  


"You're a biped, though."  


"True. But as far as anyone can tell, my species is unrelated to theirs. Bipedal life is just really common, apparently."  


"Would you look at that? I'm special."  


The two of them arrived at the door to the _Rootstock_ 's medical bay, which opened automatically for them. As Ashley gently set Algrady down on the nearest bed, he took a look around. The other bed was occupied by a gray-haired alien; probably another zhr, he though, although it was hard to tell, since the patient was sleeping on his side, facing away from them. One of the crew members - a redgreen furry biped, and much shorter than Ashley - sat beside the patient. Another one entered the room after briefly speaking with Ashley, who was on her way out.  


"Nice to meet you," the second alien said. This one was a light blue, with big black eyes - probably not one of the species he had seen so far. "I'm Dr. Morrison. They told me you were hurt - how are you doing?"  


"Not any worse," Algrady said. "I think it's one of my legs. I haven't been putting any weight on it."  


"You know, if it's a muscle or bone issue, we should be able to get that fixed here without having to go to a specialist."  


"You sure? It might be broken. Things got pretty rough in there."  


Dr. Morrison picked up a small handheld device. "Our medical technology has come a long way since we were sending our own people into space for the first time."  


"So you aren't worried about infectious disease? Viruses, bacteria, that sort of thing?"  


"The transporter filters out anything it can recognize that might be dangerous to those aboard. The bigger concern would be the accidental removal of bacteria your body depends upon, but the fact that you're not feeling any worse is a good sign. I'll run an initial check now, but Misam's a biologist - I'll want him to take a closer look. We haven't seen a lot of species like yours lately."  


Algrady looked up at the device the doctor was holding over his body. "Iroshan technology?" he asked.  


"The tricorder?" The other crew member had gotten up and made his way over to them. Algrady gathered that he was probably the Misam that the doctor had mentioned. "Actually, it's from Earth. Ashley's planet."  


"Huh. I could have sworn she was from a planet like mine. You know... low-tech."  


"What makes you say that?" Dr. Morrison asked.  


"For one thing, she's not the same species as the people who made the ship. She told me that herself. But there's something else, too. A society capable of making the tricoder has probably had spaceships for a long time, and they ought to be crewed by people who made a career of it. But she knew I was an airplane pilot."  


Misam shrugged. "She probably figured that based on the relative level of technology in your spacecraft."  


"It's obviously primitive, sure. But if that air-to-space transition isn't in living memory... I mean, it wouldn't be the first thing that comes to mind. I wouldn't think."  


* * *

Sheleth looked down at her desk. She liked to leave the door to her office open, at least when she was in it, but the mess on her desk was getting out of hand. She knew nobody would care - well, maybe Pyrite would, but she would also offer to clean it up and put together an efficient filing system.

Misam walked in, strolling past Sheleth to sit down in a beanbag chair in the corner. "Just got done talking to Algrady," he said.

"So how did it go?"

"If there's been any alien contact with his species before, he didn't seem to know about it. But apparently we line up pretty well with their cultural expectations of alien life, so that's made things pretty smooth." Misam smiled. "His biology is pretty interesting. Almost an exact mirror of what we see in other planets' canine species, except for the brain. It's all wrinkly, like a human's."

"Doesn't sound that exciting to me," Sheleth said.  


"Well, it suggests that their intelligence and self-awareness developed independently, and not as a result of the ancient humanoids' seeding of the galaxy. I think we might see some real innovative things coming out of the cultures on their planet."  


Like Misam, Sheleth was an old Starfleet officer, and she knew he had chosen his words deliberately. " _Cultures_ , plural?"  


"Yeah, they're not exactly a unified planet. Algrady tells me they've been at war with each other pretty much his whole life."  


"Ever been in a first contact situation before?" Sheleth asked.  


"A couple times. Once as a kid when my parents were in Starfleet, and once later on, before I left. You?"  


"Never, believe it or not. Any idea how we should handle it? Like, how much do we tell him?"  


"While he's here with us, I don't think we need to worry about it. If he goes back, we'll just wipe his memory."  


Sheleth paused for a moment. "Can we really do that?"

"I assume you mean from an ethical perspective? Honestly, I don't see any other choice. This guy's an astronaut - he's probably pretty famous, maybe influential. Anything he knows about us could have a big impact on his world's development. Whatever happens after that would be on us."  


"So, what - would he just wake up on the planet's surface with no memory of how he got there? He's gonna go out looking for answers, don't you think? That in itself could affect their cultural development."  


"Either way, everyone probably already thinks he's dead. You know what, maybe we should list all our options." Misam started counting them off on his fingers. "One - erase his memory. He wakes up, it's all mysterious. Two, _don't_ erase his memory, and just tell him to keep it a secret. Still mysterious but hopefully he doesn't raise a ruckus about it."  


"Three, don't let him go back."  


Misam nodded. "I'd rather not go there, but we might have to. Anything we're forgetting?"  


Sheleth shrugged. Might as well be thorough. "I guess we could kill him," she said.  


"For a starship captain, you sure are morbid," said Misam. "Besides, that doesn't really get us anything over number 3."  


* * *

Algrady woke up to the sound of his own language being spoken. And not in the standard dialect that all the aliens on the ship were using either - it was the regional, informal speech of the north. He shook the covers off and looked up to see that the medical bay's viewscreen was tuned to one of his planet's radiofilm frequencies.  


The only other person in the room was the gray-haired zhr, still in their bed, but now laying on their back. They had redgreen eyes like the others, but their antennae and skin were the light color of sand, and the antennae were drooping down the back of their pillow. Their wings were out, but they were tattered and sickly-looking.  


"Hi," the zhr said. "I'm Bel."  


Algrady was getting used to the computer, and this time, he could tell that it was translating for him. He noted it had used the masculine singular - an archaic feature among native speakers, but not unheard of. "Algrady Golin. What'cha watching?"  


"I don't know. Neither do the announcers, I guess. They're just talking about what they're eating for breakfast." Bel turned the volume up a couple of notches. "Sometimes it's just nice to know that people are doing things that don't involve you at all. That there are worlds out there beyond your influence and responsibility. You know?"  


"Is that from my planet?"  


"I think so. They look like you."  


"Dogs?"  


"Yeah."  


"I've watched a lot of sci-fi, and I always thought about what aliens might look like. Never thought about what I'd look like to them. The fact that there's an animal on Earth that looks exactly like me... to be honest, I find it hilarious." Algrady chuckled. "Every time I see a human, I'm gonna say something to them. Just to see what face they make when they meet a talking dog."  


"I bet it would be easier to get by if I was something totally alien," Bel said. "People are okay with that. It's better than being just a little bit... off."  


* * *

Pyrite stood at her station on the unlit and empty bridge, looking out at the stars. She wondered how far she was from home.

Her homeworld. Her government, the one she was still loyal to, underneath it all. It had caused a lot of pain over the years. Not so much to other sentient life (after the mess with Earth, they tended to avoid inhabited planets as much as possible), but certainly to its own people.

The lights flickered on.  


"Worried about something?" asked Misam. Somehow, he always knew what she was thinking.  


"How do you do that?"  


"By looking at your face?"  


"Oh, right." Pyrite turned back around. "I was just thinking about the alien."  


"Algrady?"  


"It sounds like he's getting along great with everyone. And -- this isn't about me being uncomfortable talking to people. Like usual. He's very affable. I'm just thinking... if you erase his memory, he's not going to remember any of it."  


Misam took a seat at his usual station, swinging the chair around to face hers. "I suppose not."  


"I had this one friend - just before the end of era 2, when I was on the ghost ship. She got to know me pretty well over the course of a couple of years. But she wasn't real. At least not in a way where she remembered me later. It was her, but... there just wasn't anything between us anymore."  


"I take it she was an alien," Misam said. "Like us."  


Pyrite nodded.  


"Is a memory wipe even possible for your species?"  


Pyrite smiled grimly. "During era 2, it was standard procedure. Especially for personal assistants. Ever since era 3 started a few years back, just before I came here - total 180. Good thing, too. If you take away a person's experience, well... they're not really the same person anymore."  


"I suppose you're right. But still... I mean, I had some of _my_ memories erased when I was a kid."  


"Did you ever find out why?" Pyrite asked.  


"I'm sure Starfleet's got that on record, but I never asked. I feel like it might have been for the better."  


* * *

Data pads were scattered across Algrady's bed, each loaded with information about Iroshan science and history.  


"The people on my planet have a religion, historically at least," he said. "A set of gods they worship. The holy book says they're eternal souls from the heavens who protected our world from floods and earthquakes."  


"What's an eternal soul supposed to look like?" asked Bel.  


"I don't know. Shiny? I'm not particularly religious." Algrady nudged the data pad off his bed with his nose. "But do you think maybe they were real?"  


"Aliens?" Bel yawned and stretched his arms. "Maybe. Bajoran gods are real. Greek ones too, apparently. If you believe Kirk."  


"I don't know. Something about that seems to take the magic out of it."  


"You just said you weren't religious."  


"I'd like to be," said Algrady. "It's just... none of the religious practices on my own planet ever really felt right."  


"Maybe you should check out Misam's, then."  


"I can't just take his people's religion, can I?"  


"That's the crazy thing," Bel said. "It's not even his. It's an _Earth_ religion. But they kinda just let anybody in."  
  
"Say... how long have you been on the ship?"  


Bel rolled over. "A few weeks, I guess. Had to get myself off the Earth on the down low. I don't need those overeager Starfleet doctors poking tricorders in my face. You heard of Starfleet?"

"I take it that's an organization that consists of a lot of starships?"

"Yeah. Based on Earth."

"I don't know," Algrady said. "Kind of a generic-sounding name."

"It's part of the United Federation of Planets."

Algrady laughed. "Even worse."

"They're not bad. They just don't know how to act around me." Bel started flipping through the radiofilm channels, even though the sound was still off. "Nice thing about Iroshans is, they don't bug you. Even if a lot of them are bugs."

"Zhrs? How many?"

"I don't know, like 70 percent. Most of the rest is humans, like Ashley. Or maybe Ferengi."

"So how'd this ship end up with so many different species in senior roles?" Algrady asked. "Like that blue doctor?"  


Bel gave Algrady a curious look. "I'm pretty sure she's purple. Are you colorblind?"  


"Must be."  


"Anyway, the crew? None of them are actually _from_ Iroshar. Misam and Sheleth are Starfleet alumni. Don't know why they left but I think they each have their reasons. Pyrite's not Federation but she's from an Earth-allied planet. Not sure where Leaf came from."  


"What about Ashley?"  


"I don't know if it's a secret or if she just doesn't wanna talk about it. But I haven't asked. Thing is, she's just an ordinary human. She could be from anywhere."  


* * *

"So you've probably heard about the situation we're in with Algrady," said Pyrite.  


Leaf nodded. It was nice of Pyrite to join him in the mess hall, especially since it was 2 hours past midnight, he couldn't eat anything but meat, and she couldn't eat at all. The room was empty and they were able to snag the table right up against the replicator.  


"What do you think about it?"  


"Well, I've never been in a situation like that before."  


"Really? Not anytime in the past 150 years?"  


Leaf thought back to his time on Kaolack II. Being the monsters' ambassador to the human village, he had met a lot of people, and been dragged into a lot of scenarios. But no human, and no monster, was ever under the impression that the other didn't exist. It was hard for them to avoid each other. In fact, that was often the problem. "Not that I can think of," he said. "You?"  


"I understand why they feel like they need to do something, I guess. But neither of the choices sit right with me. Either we wipe his memory, or we keep him here and he never sees anyone from his old life again."  


"Did you have any other ideas?" Leaf asked.  


"I suppose we could keep him in stasis until the rest of his planet is ready to join the greater interstellar community. But what if it takes hundreds of years?"  


"Or if it never happens at all... I mean, what do you do then?"  


Pyrite took a quick look around. "Yeah, it seems like the whole rest of the command crew is on edge about it. All three of them. To be honest, so am I. You really don't have any strong feelings about this whole situation?"  


"I do, it's just..." Leaf sighed. "I just keep thinking about myself. I don't think I really care what happens to this guy. All I care about is what he thinks of me. That's just kind of how I am. I try to channel that into helping people, but I feel like - at my core - I'm really a selfish person."  


"Like there's something missing from you that you kinda wish was there?"  


"Exactly. Although if it was... I mean, I'd be a completely different individual."  


"I feel like that sometimes, too," said Pyrite. "People think I'm a normal person when they meet me, but there are certain things about their lives that I just can't relate to. And it's not just a species thing, either - I'm like that back home, too. Especially when it comes to fusion."  


"If you ever want to live on a planet," Leaf said, "you should maybe try mine. The thing about monsters is that none of us really fit in."  


"Don't you also eat each other a lot?"  


"You're a piece of metal. Very hard to chew. I wouldn't worry about it."  


Pyrite turned around and had the computer make Leaf a glass of water. "You care about Bel, though, right?" she asked.  


"That's different, I guess. And I don't know if it's really about _him._ It's just... well, he reminds me of my sister."  


She had been half human, too. Well, maybe more than half - Petals had a monster's body, but a human's soul. Probably the only monster who ever asked for a burial. It had been hard on Clay when she died, but Leaf knew he understood. Leaf had lived in the human city, sure, but Petals really lived _among_ them.  


He just hoped that Bel would get that sort of opportunity someday.  


* * *

Ashley leaned against the wall next to Misam's bed and looked sideways out the window into the corridor. Misam didn't ask why she was in such a foul mood; he was pretty sure he knew.

"I knew Sheleth was a by-the-book captain, but... we're not in Starfleet. It's not even the right book."

"I've known her since she was a kid," Misam said. "She's not trying to follow some sort of rulebook with Algrady. She really believes in non-interference. You know she's always honest about these sorts of things."

"I thought you'd try to talk some sense into her."

"What, you thought I'd take your side?"

"You could at least pretend. Isn't that what a second-in-command is supposed to do? Object to everything?"

"You're the security officer. That's _your_ job."

Ashley sat down next to Misam on the bed. "Algrady's a fighter pilot," she said. "His planet is at war. They might not have space ships, but they've got environmental weapons."

"What would you have us do?" Misam asked. "Send him back to fight?"

"Not just him. Full-on alien invasion."

Misam did a double take. "You can't be serious. The Vulcans didn't invade Earth in the 21st century, did they?"

"Well, they should have."

"Really? You grew up on Earth in the 1990s, and you think, 'wow, I wish our planet got invaded by an unstoppable alien army!'"

"If they could have just _let us know they were there_ , don't you think people might have thought twice before starting another war?" Ashley threw one of Misam's pillows across the room. "Algrady's planet is going the same way Sheleth's did. Giant war. Impending environmental catastrophe. It's not just Earth. Vulcan almost got destroyed in the Romulan split. Sheleth's planet was down to under eight million people before they made first contact. _Eight million_ on a planet the size of Earth. It wouldn't even take Starfleet to intervene - it could be a few random Ferengi for all I care. They're not gonna straighten out until they know there's alien life out there."

"But Earth is thriving now. Vulcan is as stable as it's ever been. And Kashet..." Misam shrugged. "I guess you got me there."

"The worst part of ending up in the future was losing my parents. The next worst thing was finding out that nobody cared. You know the reason I hang out with aliens so much? Every time another human finds out I was from the 1990s, they look at me, a dark-skinned transgender girl from a colonized country, and say, 'oh, you must be so happy to be in this _perfect future Earth!_ '" Ashley closed her eyes. "My whole family died in the war. My parents. My brothers. Every cousin whose name showed up in the Federation database. How can it be a perfect future when it doesn't include my family? When it doesn't include _me_?"  


Misam looked down at his shoes.  


"I don't want you to think I don't _want_ to help," he said. "I mean, all the major influences in my life - they all come from Earth. None of it would have been possible if my species never made contact with yours."  


"Then why not reach out to them?"  


Misam sighed. "You know how much my faith means to me. God's forgiveness extends to everyone, not just on Earth but beyond. I wish I could share the gospels with them - of course I do. But you just have to look at the history of Western civilization on Earth to see what can happen. Even if you have the best of intentions, even if you just want to reach out to them, that power balance isn't something you can just ignore, and it's gonna lead to a lot of problems that you can't always fix." He stood up and grabbed a data pad from his nightstand, sliding it in his pocket. "Besides, if God was calling me to evangelize, I wouldn't be living on a starship working with the same five people every day."  


"Five?"  


"You, Sheleth, Pyrite, Leaf, and Deb Morrison. I know she's technically a floater, but she's the only doctor _or_ nurse on the payroll with substantial alien experience. I have to imagine she'll spend most of her time on the ship with all the aliens." He sat down at his desk. "You think she knows I like her?"  


"I think she likes you too. I think that's why she took the job. I mean, this is a woman who lives _on the moon_. Talk about a downgrade."  


"That's not that weird. Your moon being the same size in the sky as the sun? Like, exactly the same? _That's_ weird."  


* * *

[ ](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/a26676ed-5753-4a81-8907-199bd9057960/de8y2o0-636e36b8-f58b-4844-a6a2-a10f93f6e38d.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYTI2Njc2ZWQtNTc1My00YTgxLTg5MDctMTk5YmQ5MDU3OTYwXC9kZTh5Mm8wLTYzNmUzNmI4LWY1OGItNDg0NC1hNmEyLWExMGY5M2Y2ZTM4ZC5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.tdJDcwrELnKD0x64ezs_RmTUPhFxFJQZ023vekdtN6w)

Algrady walked into the medical bay. His leg felt as good as new, but Dr. Morrison didn't want him carrying any extra weight around, so he left his space suit in his quarters and instead wore some simple, loose-fitting clothes Misam had replicated for him. Bel was still in the far bed, listening to music on the radio. He reached over and switched it off.  


"Mind if I ask you a personal question, Bel?"  


Bel sat up and leaned forward. "You never did figure it out, did you?"  


"I'm a pilot," Algrady said, "not a detective."  


"Then why go around asking so many questions?"  


"They're obviously going to wipe my memory before they send me home." Algrady pulled himself up onto the empty bed. "I figure I might as well make use of the time I have."  


"They decided that?"  


"Seems like the only logical thing to do. I doubt they'd want to keep me here forever. But if they weren't gonna touch my memories, they wouldn't be answering my questions. So I figure that must be the plan."  


"Well, you're probably the only person I've ever met who doesn't already know who I am." Bel rolled over onto his back. "I wasn't born. I was created as a political statement. These two Iroshan scientists - a zhr and a human - they were trying to prove that their species weren't that different after all. So they made a little hybrid baby, and paraded him in front of the media."  


"I take it you're the only one?"  


"Humans can have babies with Vulcans, or Klingons, or Caitians. Not with zhrs. You know what happens when you try to do that? You get a kid who lives his whole damn life in the hospital, who's always got some piece of his body about to fall out, who can't go more than a few hours without a full bacterial scan from a tricorder because his own immune system would tear his body apart given the chance. And _that's_ whose name the revolutionaries throw around as some sort of political statement. I don't know how these people can claim to care about the welfare of humans on Iroshar if they don't even care who I really am. You know what, Algrady?"  


"What?"  


"You don't look at me and see some sort of half-and-half creature. You just see a weird alien."  


"To be honest, I'm still having trouble figuring out the 'walking on two legs' thing."  


Bel smiled. "Well, I can barely walk at all right now. So that's one less problem for us."  


* * *

Sheleth stood in the holodeck. The environmental rendering had been disabled - the only hologram in the room was an ordinary-looking chair in front of her. She grabbed a small device that had been holstered to a strap around her right leg and pointed it at the chair. As she pressed the 'next' button on the device, the chair changed design, from one to the next. Eventually she ended up with the one she'd started with.  


The doors opened and Algrady walked in. "Does this work?" he asked.  


"Yeah. I'm just procrastinating."  


Algrady walked over to the chair and looked up at it. "I like this one," he said. "Nice neutral color."  


"Yeah."  


The two of them both looked at the chair for a few seconds.  


"I don't think it's going to work," Algrady said.  


"Well, when the holodeck's on, the wall's gonna be a different color."  


"I mean sending me back." Algrady hopped up onto the chair. "I know why you have to do it. But it's not like I just went missing, you know. Everyone saw the explosion. They've probably already had my funeral."  


"It won't be the first time something like this has happened," Sheleth said. "I think we'll be able to come up with some explanation. We can have people go down there, blend in, and establish an alibi for you if we need to."  


"The thing is... I don't think I want to take the risk. Whether you erase my memories or not, someone might figure it out. And once my world knows there's aliens out there..."  


"Things are going to change?"  


"Yeah. Because of me. I don't think I'm prepared to be that person."  


"So... you want to stay here?"  


Algrady nodded. "Not _here_ , exactly. But, yes. I feel like I ought to spend the rest of my life in space."  


"Don't you have friends, family, something?"  


"Just my parents. I wish there was some way to let them know... not even that I'm alive. Just that I'm happy. You know?"  


"Hmm... They've probably already read your will, haven't they?"  


"You know..." Algrady jumped back onto the floor. "I bet they haven't. Where I'm from, it's military policy to hold one's assets in a trust for a pretty long time, even if you're really sure they're dead. So there _might_ be time to change it. Not to change who gets what. Just to add a message in there. Tell everyone I love them."  


"I'll help you." Sheleth pressed another button and the chair disappeared. "Computer, open planetary interface Sheleth epsilon."  


* * *

"You're looking pretty good," Dr. Morrison said as she ran a tricoder across the back of Bel's head.  


"I don't know about _that_ ," said Bel. "You see my hair, right?"  


"Your body's in good shape, though. No autoimmune reactions, no stray micrometamorphosis. At this point, there's not much more I can do. But if anything starts acting up before we get to Kashet, please do let me know."  


Bel noticed Algrady peeking through the door. "You coming to Kashet with me, Algrady?" he asked. "Super cold, really empty. No humans."  


"Really?" Algrady walked in. "Not even the Federation delegates?"

"The delegates are mostly Andorians," Bel told him. "I guess some of them are pretty intense, but apparently that helps the urban and rural populations get along. So I'm not complaining. Honestly, I'm hoping their own problems will take some attention off of me."  


"Maybe I should go too," said Algrady. "Talking dog, right? Now _there's_ a distraction."


End file.
